1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to assemblies of multi-terminal telecommunications connectors and terminals.
2. Related Art
Multi-terminal position telecommunications connectors are known having one or more rows of terminal positions in close proximity to one another to provide a dense terminal configuration. Terminals of this sort are used, for instance, for a connection into back planes or printed circuit boards in telecommunications equipment. It is normally to be expected that each of the terminals when inserted into its terminal position is electrically connected at one end to an incoming insulated wire to provide connections into and out of the back plane. To locate terminals into a multi-terminal position connector, conventionally a bandoiler of terminals is provided, the terminals extending laterally of the bandolier while being spaced apart lengthwise of the bandolier and connected at their ends to two bandoiler edge strips extending the full length of the bandolier. Lengths of bandolier appropriate to the connector length are severed from the bandolier, and with one of the edge strips removed, terminals of each severed length are inserted simultaneously into terminal positions of the corresponding connector and then the other edge strip is removed to electrically isolate the terminals. In some connectors, the terminal positions are too close together for the minimal allowable spacing of terminals on a bandolier, and in such cases, the bandolier has its terminal spacing equal to twice the terminal position spacing on the connector. In such cases, one bandoiler length provides terminals for one group of alternate terminal positions and another bandolier length provides the terminals for the remainder, or other group, of positions. After the terminals are in their terminal positions, selected terminals which are required to be electrically connected together to provide loop conductors into and out of a back plane or a printed circuit board, are bridged together using short conductor wires which are connected into insulation displacement terminal ends of the terminals.
The above conventional manner of bridging selected terminals has distinct disadvantages. Short conductor wires for bridging terminals are connected in intricate fashion which is time consuming with terminal spacing being perhaps of the order of-mm apart. With connectors being placed close together in dense terminal configurations at the rear of a back plane it is also preferable to locate wire bridges in the confines of the plane of the connector itself. This adds to the difficulty of the accomplishment of the bridging operation. Further, with the use of wires extending between the insulation terminal ends it is difficult, and perhaps impossible, for connecting one single terminal to two other terminals because in that one terminal, two wires need to extend into the same insulation displacement terminal end. For the same reason, it is difficult, if not impossible, to connect an incoming conductor wire to a terminal which is bridged with another terminal. This places certain design restrictions on any back plane or printed circuit board using bridged terminals.